For this special evening of An Irish Homecoming, Maura O’Connell joins the all female Celtic ensemble Cherish the Ladies, led by the Grammy Award-winning flutist and whistle player Joanie Madden, along with other guest musicians and an all-star dance ensemble featuring champion dancers and former dance ensemble members of Riverdance and The Chieftains. Cherish the Ladies have recorded 11 highly acclaimed albums. Their last two albums on Rounder Records were released to rave reviews. On Christmas Night was chosen as one of the top Christmas albums of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Village Voice and many other national publications, and their latest release, Woman of the House, is heralded as their best album to date and hit the top 10 of the Billboard Magazine world music charts. The singer Maura O’Connell once said that what country music and Irish music have in common is a passion for sentimentality. In other words, you can’t have country or Irish music without a sense of loss and a lyric that will tear your heart in two.